When the Perennials played a waltz last night — a slow evening at Great Scott — lead singer John Flax’s eyes rolled back in his head, and the crowd of a dozen or so swayed back and forth. Flax then mounted a speaker — he rode it like a horse — and bass player Brandon Phillips, in checkered lumberjack top and neat afro, took a slow swig from his PBR. The openers admitted they had nothing to sell; this was Scary Monster’s CD release party.

Scary Monsters looked like skinny monsters. Jokes aside, the kids were good — so good, it didn’t matter they looked like a high-school rock band. Lead singer Jed Rouhana’s alabaster neck craned over the mic like a thin bird’s would. His mouth hung open, slack, like a kid playing a video game. But he sang loud, one part Marilyn Manson, one part David Bowie (if Bowie wore a jet black wig). And in song, the smallish boy wasn’t a boy anymore.

Rouhana’s pale cheeks shuddered as he belted a chorus with a voice like Cher. The band then slowed it down with a new song. “It’s not dancy and hyperactive,” Jed warned. But it’s not a slow song either.

At show’s end, I cornered the drummer, who wore a white undershirt over muscles, and told him I liked the new song. “You liked that one?” he asks. “It’s fucking “Elephant.” Like big fucking elephant,” he explains, demarking it from others like “Fast Money” and “Liver” (and I wonder: why can’t kids today think of other fucking adjectives?)

So the night’s over. The band is young yet, and who can say they’ll last? But we clapped after every song, and in the end, wished those skinny kids would play for us a little longer.

David Bowie | Storytellers Bowie was particularly relaxed and reflective when he took his star turn on VH1's Storytellers program 10 years ago next month.

David Bowie | Space Oddity: 40th Anniversary Edition David Bowie’s 1969 album Man of Music/Man of Words was retitled a few years after its debut, most likely because it was quickly becoming known as Space Oddity and Those Other Eight Songs We Could Care Less About .

Ziggy lives! Club Hell starts the weekend off THURSDAY (the 6th) with an early-bird experimental rock show featuring Houston's SCALE THE SUMMIT (currently on tour opening for Dream Theater) with Cranston's CALIFORNIA SMILE , who are reportedly finishing a new record.